A Quick and Easy Guide to Producing a Small Business Video

With filming equipment more accessible than ever, you don't have to be Martin Scorsese to be able to produce quality videos for your business

It’s a given that, as part of a business, you would be looking for as many ways as possible to promote your business, no matter how outlandish they may be. With more and more technology and other ways to promote your business (and anything else for that matter) being made available as time goes on, it can be tricky to know where to look first.

Simple is often best, especially when it comes to something as vital as business promotion. In this instance, we’ll be taking a look at good old-fashioned video as a method of promoting your business.

Video may not exactly be at the forefront of technological advances, but it’s always going to be one of the most effective ways of promoting your business. It doesn’t matter what your business entails or what you sell – all that matters is that you produce a video that’s of a high enough quality to do its job.

We aren’t saying you have to produce something of Hollywood blockbuster quality, but producing a video of a fairly high quality is much, much easier than one may think.

First things first

Planning is essential to producing a video that’s bound to get people interested in your business. As a starting point, we recommend having a think about what exactly it is you want your video to achieve; do you want to tell a story, describe your business, explain your products, or a mix of all three? Even if it’s something else entirely, the important thing is to have a solid plan in place.

As well, make sure to consider your target audience (think about age, gender, potential interests, what may be deemed inappropriate for them, etc.), what kind of message you want the video to give, and what you want people to do once they’ve watched your video – be it buy your product, visit your website, or have a think about a certain subject.

Before you get shooting, it’s important to get some feedback on your idea from your established target audience, to ensure that it would interest them and engage them in the intended way. It could be that you write a short survey and ask people who fit within the target audience if they like the idea (although it may be tricky to find people who you don’t already know, it’s best to do this to avoid bias) and gauge people’s reactions from there.

Next comes the fun part – shooting the video!

Once you have a solid idea established, you need to organise all of your scripts, storyboards, actors, locations, and anything else you’ll need. It’s best to do this before shooting begins, as you don’t want to be panicking halfway through when you realise a certain actor isn’t available to finish off an important scene.

Also, make sure to be a tad picky about what camera, lighting, and audio setup you use. You don’t have to fork out thousands for a camera that you’re only going to use once, but we reckon it’s worth investing a fair amount of money for equipment that is going to leave you with a high-quality video.

With your plan at hand, make sure that you get all of the footage you need before you wrap things up – it’s a hindrance if you have to re-shoot something that you’ve missed.

Finished shooting? Next up is editing

Editing can be a tedious process, but it is ultimately worth it to ensure that the video fits the brief and initial plan. As well, it gives you the ideal opportunity to produce a few different edits of the video, so you can experiment before you finalise anything. Once you have a few final cuts sorted, why not get a piece of feedback for each? Ultimately, the decision for the final piece should up to you, but customer and client feedback can go a long way.

All that’s left to do now is to share your video

Depending on your budget, your preference, and social media presence, you could share your video on anywhere from YouTube, to the television, to advertisements on websites. YouTube is one of the most popular and easiest ways to share videos, and their advertisement service is one of the most effective at getting your video out there.

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter – of which many businesses will have a presence on – are a fairly cost-free way of sharing advertisements – you could simply post it for your followers to watch and potentially share, or you could pay a small fee for marketing services which will give your advertisement more reach and amplification.

Whatever your plans may be, and whatever it is you’re promoting, creating a video advertisement can be a massive morale boost for your staff – especially if you find a way to get everyone involved. As creators of commercials, branded content, animations, and documentaries, Digifish know this all too well and are here to help with all of your video needs.

Editor’s Picks

Advertise with us

is4profit is a leading resource for the UK’s micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. To find out about our advertising rates and opportunities contact our sales manager Jonathan Seymour: jonathan.seymour@theinternetworks.co.uk or (020) 72349421